Mourinho: Get ahead get a haircut

Tuesday 25 July 2006 19.37 EDT
First published on Tuesday 25 July 2006 19.37 EDT

Jose Mourinho has long sought to inculcate his ferocious will to win in his squad but now he is setting out to be a style icon for his players with his dramatic No1 crop hairstyle. "How many people change their haircut for the weather?" the Chelsea manager said before setting off with his squad today on a training trip to the United States.

"I also cut my hair for a different reason, because I want to push my kid to do the same," Mourinho explained to the New York Times yesterday. "And it was hot. Training two times a day, I have no time to spend with long hair. I also want to push the young players on my team to have a proper haircut, not the Rastafarians they have.

"For me, I changed the look, maybe my face is more aggressive, to prepare myself for football, to be ready for war."

Mourinho admits it is "impossible" to keep all of his stars happy with Damien Duff saying the driving force behind his £5m move to Newcastle was the lack of first-team opportunities at Stamford Bridge. Mourinho has trimmed his squad to 20 in order to keep everybody satisfied. But the Chelsea manager, who has signed Michael Ballack and Andriy Shevchenko this summer, admits he is fighting a losing battle.

"It is not easy coaching so many top players. I can't say that every player is happy because at the end of the season we have players who want to leave," he said. "They don't want to leave to go to a better club, they want to leave because they want to be more happy in football and that means playing more.

"It is impossible to keep everyone happy. This year we will have 20 players on the squad and with a smaller squad I think everyone feels useful."

Chelsea will face a Major League Soccer All-Star team on August 5 following a week of training at UCLA in California. It will be Chelsea's third summer in succession in America with Mourinho viewing the tours as crucial for team bonding. "I like coming to the States because of the freedom the players have," he said.

"It's the beginning of the season and the players need some space, to be able to go for a walk after dinner. These are the crucial moments where, as a group, they build relationships, not just go back to their hotel rooms and then see the same players the next day. They need to develop communication and the States is a good place for that."

Mourinho may still have to exercise his communication skills in keeping Didier Drogba at the club. The Ivory Coast striker was yesterday quoted as saying he was still receptive to a move away from Stamford Bridge. "I'm not a greedy person but if the price is right and I still feel giddy about Chelsea then I'll go," the 28-year-old was reported as saying.

He added: "I'm a Chelsea player at the moment and I am planning to do my best this season. But at one time, yes, I really did want to leave. The accusations of diving, the playing pattern and some other personal issues were all part of it. Sometimes when you have so much pressure on you there is a need to change scene so that your game does not suffer. I'm young and I still want to give my best to the fans."

Drogba says the summer arrival of the strikers Shevchenko and Salomon Kalou have not affected his future at Chelsea. "It's scandalous to think I want to leave because other players are coming in," he said. "More quality players will be good for the team and Jose Mourinho needs such a team to remain champions. Leading the attack will always appeal to me."